WINNERS & Still A Chance the Coach Purse!

Here are the winners of the book giveaway:

1.) One Million Arrows by Julie Ferwerda goes to Leslie of www.starrlooktotheworld.blogspot.com who is right now picking up her two precious sons in ET!




2.) Scared by Tom Davis goes to: Debi of http://jenkinsethiopiaadoption.blogspot.com

3.) Priceless by Tom Davis. When I drew for this one, two of the pieces of paper were stuck together, so Debi of http://jenkinsethiopiaadoption.blogspot.com and Jerry Bennett, an illustrator and friend (who you must look up on Facebook at The Illustrator Formerly Known as Jerry Bennett) are both going to win a copy!

4.) Radical by David Platt. Goes to Steffany at http://toliveloveandlaughtoday.blogspot.com

This was so much fun! Thank you for playing! There are still chance for you to win my brand spankin' new Coach purse. We've only raised $100 so far, so I am extending the giveaway until Monday morning. Please go to PayPal, donate $20 and give a girl in India the chance at being rescued from sex slavery.

A Coach Purse for $20? WHAT!!!

I told you all last night about HopeChest's efforts to put together a rescue team for ten girls being held in sexual slavery in India. As I thought last night about what I could give, the Lord began convicting my heart about the "treasures" I have in my life. And this morning, Tom Davis posted an article about what you could give up to help someone else.

My mom bought me a Coach purse a few months ago. I LOVE this bag. It means something to me, it's a gift and I've NEVER used it. It still has the paper stuffing inside. I drug my feet all night. "NO Lord. Please not my purse. My mom gave it to me. It's a gift...." Blah. Blah. Blah. All night I gave God my excuses. But He was asking for my obedience. It's not just a really cool purse, it's my testament to Him that I will do what I am asked. I can give it up and help someone else.

Do you want it?



For $20, you can buy a chance to win this amazing accessory and give a girl in India the opportunity to be rescued, healed and restored. All you do is go to the Paypal button and donate $20 for each chance you want to enter. Make sure to put in the notes section "India rescue".

But this giveaway just gets better. Once we've raised $350 from this purse, my friends will donate purses of their own ranging from Coach, Bramin, Louis Vitton, Kate Spade or Prada. You won't know which one is coming next, as each one is a surprise and we'll continue auctioning them off until you are sick of buying. Please spread the word! We still need about $7000 to complete this rescue.
Women love a good deal and when a good deal combines with the chance to save a life: well now that equals FABULOUS!

To read more about the rescue, click here.

The Price of Virginity

A few weeks ago a dear friend of mine, Vince Giordano with Children's HopeChest, travelled to India to view the situation of children who are held in brothels. The things that he has described seeing while he was there makes me nauseous and just flat out makes me rage. During his travels, he learned about a woman who together with her husband run a very lucrative and open brothel where they do not even hide the fact that they provide children for sex. One of the biggest services provided are the procuring and delivery of young virgins to politicians, travelers and local POLICE OFFICERS! Are you raging with me yet?

As I wrestled with this information today, I was reminded of the movie Taken. In the film, Liam Niesen's daughter is kidnapped and sold into sexual slavery. I won't spoil the film for you, but Liam has the opportunity as a former intelligence agent to save his daughter. He is placed in a situation where he is able to watch men bid on his daughter's virginity. The price in the movie reached a half a million dollars. And in the end, Liam's daughter is rescued (by some kick a** moves by one PO'd daddy) and her virginity is secured.

Now I know that Taken is just a movie, but this scenario is being played out in the back room of a dirty hell hole in India right NOW. And I can guarantee a little girl's innonence is worth much less to her attacker than $500,000. My daddy is my hero and I know if I was ever in trouble he would come running and would kick as much a** as it took to protect his daughter or die trying.
Tonight, we are giving you the opportunity to RUN to a girl who is in need. Tonight, an anti-trafficking organiation on the ground in India is preparing to raid this brothel in India and rescue up to 10 girls being held against their will. In order to prepare a raid, secure the authorities and personel and equipment only costs $125 a girl who is rescued. $125 to secure a girl's innocence. I don't know what makes me more ill, that it only costs $125 to rescue a child or how many children could have been rescued by the excess money I've spent on ridiculous things (like my Coach purse).

Tonight as I tucked Ruta into bed, I knew what I would do to protect her innocence and for every other child in the world, they deserve the same kind of passion and outrage that arise in my soul when I think of someone hurting my own children.
I've been re-reading through the new testament and there are several images of Jesus that have stood out to me. Yes, he was compassionate and full of love, but when he approached the temple and saw the money lenders defiling his Father's house, he made a whip and drove them out. And when Jesus is preparing the disciples for his impending death. He tells them in verse Luke 22:36 "...and if you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one."

Tonight, I am asking you to draw your sword and kick open the door for a child who may never have another chance at freedom.

You can read more about the rescue plan for these children here.

Read more: http://blog.beliefnet.com/redletters/#ixzz0uNu3QJ6j

Still Time

There is still time to enter the book giveaway! All you have to do is one (or all) of the following:

1.) Follow my blog (you have to be a new follower)
2.) Grab my button
3.) Re-post this to your blog
4.) Post this on your facebook
5.) Donate $1 via paypal (Proceeds will benefit Because Every Mother Matters)

Please be sure to leave me a comment and let me know how many of the above you have done. Each one counts as an entry. Drawing will occur on Saturday morning.

Have fun, spread the word!

A Reward For You!

It's been several weeks since my last post. Our family packed up and rewarded our 3 months together by heading out of town. And I left my laptop in the case and triedto just enjoy the scenery. So to reward all of you like I rewarded myself, I'm throwing my first blog giveaway. Since I've read so many amazing books recently, I felt the need to share the love. Up for giveaway is brand spankin' new copies of the following:

1.) One Million Arrows by Julie Ferwerda

2.) Scared by Tom Davis

3.) Priceless by Tom Davis

4.) Radical by David Platt

While book number one will provide some amazing parenting advice (and I usually need all I can get my hands on!), book two will cause you to open your heart to those outside your front door and is written by one of my all time favorite authors. Book three will cause you to rage with righteous anger and hopefully engage you into being an advocate and book four, well, only you and Jesus can determine how much your life will be changed after reading.


I will draw the winners on Saturday morning and the books will be given away in the order they are listed. You will receive one entry for each of the following:

1.) Follow my blog (you have to be a new follower)
2.) Grab my button
3.) Re-post this on your own blog
4.) Re-post this on your facebook
5.) You can buy an entry for $1 each via PayPal
(Proceeds to benefit Because Every Mother Matters)

Alright, on your mark, get set, GO!

Please remember to leave me a comment for each of the requirements you do, so I can give you credit for your entries. And GOOD LUCK!

To Educate...Them All!

Yesterday, I asked you to look in the eyes of Kushum and see her. YOU let God speak to your hearts and as of 7:30p.m. yesterday, YOU had raised enough money to send this precious angel to her first year of school . But I owe you an apology. Because when I looked through the profiles of the 12 kids at Asha yesterday, I only saw this face:


I didn't even bother to look at the others. This morning, as I read through the 11 other profiles of the kids at Asha, I ran across this face:

He is the ten year old brother of Kushum. His name is Ravi. At first, I really wanted to rest on our laurels from yesterday. Kushum was going to school. One year of life she is safe from the evil world of a brothel and being offered an education. Wasn't that enough? But as I began to pray about Kushum, I kept being flooded with the knowledge that the sex industry doesn't occur in a vacuum. There are millions of men who pay for the services of young girls and women every day. A lot of women who enter this profession do so against their will and once they are old enough to leave they have no where else to go. But what about the men that pay for such services? These men need to be educated from an early age to value a woman and honor not only a woman's body but his own as well. Who really needs the education? The answer is that they both do. Ravi and Kushum are equal in the eyes of their Heavenly Father and they should be to us too.

People said there was no way we could raise $4884 dollars in 48 hours and send all 12 of the kids at Asha to school. They were right, we didn't. God did it in 28 hours!!!!!!!!!!!

That's right, as of the writing of this post, all 12 children at Asha will begin school tomorrow. Our God is righteous and He loathes injustice. Thank you for helping us slay it on behalf of 12 little ones who right now don't yet know that tomorrow is the start of their new education!

Give Her A Crown!

We've been home from Ethiopia for three months. We were only home two weeks when Ruta began BEGGING to go to school. Even though there were only eight weeks left before the end of Kindgergarten, she started with gusto. Each day she would bound from the car, scream "bye Mommy" and head for the door. My daughter's zeal for education was inspiring. While my niece and nephew were belaboring about the final eight weeks, my Ethiopian princess was in tears the last day of school. It was consistent reassurance that she would indeed go back to classes in August.

My daughter also LOVES movies. She calls them "films". Her favorites include Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast and The Princess and the Frog. The common theme in all these movies is there is a princess. And if you call her a princess, she sheepishly turns her head and whispers "thank you". It melts this mama's heart.

This week, I have a very dear friend who is travelling with Children's HopeChest to India. He has seen some devastating things and he has even been inside several brothels. There are a group of people you would not expect to see inside a brothel, children. But my friend Vince says they are everywhere. Some of them are working (a thought which makes me RAGE with righteous anger) and some of them are there to visit their mothers, who are working. When interviewing these women their only hope is that their children gain an education, so that they do not inherit the profession of their mothers.

There are 12 children in the Asha ministry program that are eligible to start school THIS Thursday. There is only one problem: each child needs $407 in order to have a uniform, supplies and tuition paid for the year. When reading through the profiles of the children at Asha, I got lost in the sea of need, until I saw THIS face:



Meet Kushum. She and my daughter are the exact same age. While Ruta is enrolled in kindergarten and will start on August 17th, Kushum lacks 407 miracles to start her new life. Here is how she is described by the staff at Asha:

Kushum has a quiet confidence that does not come from what others think of her or how others react to her. She is perfectly content to stand back and watch things unfold rather than be in the middle of the action. Kushum is a strong student in school and is learning English well for her age. Her stunning beauty, quiet nature, and ability to stop people in their tracks with a single glance from the "stink eye" are all defining qualities of Kushumlatha.

Today I am asking you to stare into her eyes and imagine that it is the eyes of a child you know and if you know me well, imagine it is my Ruta. Would you give Ruta money to go to school? Let's give it to Kushum.

Here's what we want to do. We have two days. While there are several other warrior girls (Amy, Sarah, Brandi, Melanie) advocating for the other children at Asha, Kushum is being advocated for by the Andrews' clan. For every dollar you donate through HopeChest, we'll match it until Kushum's school fee is paid. Simply click here, make your donation (make sure to mark it "india school-kushum" in the notes section) and then leave me a comment on my blog or email me the amount you gave so we can match it. I cannot give $4884.00 dollars, but we can spare $203.50, can you? We may not have a huge spread of food for 4th of July, but knowing that Kushum will have a start on her way out of poverty sure sounds like the definition of Independence Day to me.

Please blog, facebook, tweet and spread the word about this and give Kushum her own princess crown, one of education.